Electric-railway system.



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P. W. LEFFLER. ELECTRIC RAILWAY SYSTEM. APPLICATION HLED 0CT.Z3. I912.

1 04,463. Patented Nov. 14, 1916.

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P. W. LEFFLER.

ELECTRIC RAILWAY SYSTEM.

APPLICATION 111511 001. 23, 1912.

1 04,463. Patented Nov. 14, 1916.

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APPLICATION FILED 001.23, I9IZ.

Patented Nov. 14, 1916.

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P. W. LEFFLER ELECTRIC RAILWAY SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED OCT-23. 1912.

1,204,463. Patented Nov. 14, 1916.

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P, W. LEFFLER.

ELECTRlC RAILWAY SYSTEM. APPLICATION FILED ocT.23..19"12.

Patented Nov. 14, 1916.

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ELECTRIC RAILWAY SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED 0CT.23. 1912- Patented Nov. 14, 1916.

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P. W. LEFFLER. ELECTRIC RAILWAY SYSTEM. APPLICATION FILED 0CT.23. I9I2.

Patented Nov. 14, 1916.

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P. W LEFFLER. ELECTRIC RAILWAY SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED 001.23. 1912.

1,204,463. Patented Nov. 14, 1916.

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P. WILEFFLER. ELECTRIC RAILWAY SYSTEM. APPLICATION FILED OCI-ZB, I912.

Patented Nov. 14, 1916.

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P. W. LEFFLER.

ELECTRIC RAILWAY SYSTEM.

APPLICATION man 001. 23. 1912.

1,204,463. Patented Nov. 14, 1916.

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P. W. LEFFLER.

ELECTRIC RAILWAY SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 23. 1912.

1,204,463. 4 Patented Nov. 14, 1916.

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P. W. LEFFLER.

ELECTRIC RAILWAY SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILE D OCT. 23. 1912.

Patnted Nov. 14, 1916.

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P. W. LEFFLER.

ELECTRIC RAILWAY SYSTEM.

APPLlCATlON FILED OCT. 23. 1912.

Patented Nov. 14, 1916.

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APPLICATION FILED 001.23. 1912.

Patented Nov. 14, 1916.

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Patented Nov. 14, 1916.

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ELECTRIC RAILWAY SYSTEM.

APPLICATON FILED OCT. 23. I9I2.

Patented Nov. 14, 1916.

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PAUL W. LEFFLER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS; ANNA A. LEFFLER ADMINISTRATRIX OF SAID PAUL W. LEFFLER, DECEASED.

ELECTRIC-RAILWAY SYSTEIv/I.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 14, 1916.

Original application filed August 13, 1908, Serial No. 448,269. Divided and this application filed October 23, 1912. Serial No. 727,276.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, PAUL W. LEFFLER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Electric-Railway Systems; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention has for its object to provide improved means for transmitting current to the cars, in electric railway systems of the general character disclosed and claimed in my co-pending application entitled Electric railway systems, filed of date August 13, 1908, under Serial Number 448,269. In fact the present application is filed as a division of the said co-pending application and the drawings and much of this specification are identical with those of the said co-pending application.

Generally stated, the invention consists of the novel devices and combinations of devices hereinafter described and defined in the claims.

General statement.1n my said system, as may be seen on reference to my prior patents, electro-magnets are located in the roadbed, suitably spaced apart from each other,

and are connected into a supply circuit, for affording a magnetic field which extends along the entire line of the cars travel; a non-rotating armature is carried by the car with the cores of its magnets traveling close to the cores of the field magnets; the windings of the armature are arranged in sets, interpositioned in respect to each other, with the members of each set connected up in series; a magnetic pole changer is carried by the car, including a magnetic driver or pole changer armature subject to the field magnets, for imparting rotary motion thereto, and a commutator operated by this magnetic driver for reversing the direction of the current through the armature circuits, so as to change the polarity of the armature magnets as required for cooperation with the field magnets. The field magnets are so wound that adjacent members are of opposite polarity, and the interpositioned sets of armature magnets are so connected that a proper number thereof on each of the opposite sides of a given field magnet, at any given instant of time, will be of opposite polarity in respect to each other; and, hence, so that every field magnet will cooperate with certain of the armature magnets to give a pull and with certain others thereof to give a push, cooperating to move the car in a common direction. The pole changing mechanism operates to change the polarity of the armature magnets, according to the speed of the car, so that the proper relation is always maintained between the armature and the field magnets. The field magnets are so connected into the supply circuit that only a certain portion of the field, to-wit, that over which the car is passing, at a given time, will be subject to the full force of the supply circuit. In my system, as disclosed in my said prior patents, a storage battery was shown as carried on the car to supply current for the car armature and the magnetic pole changer; and a combined regulating and reversing device was also carried on the car for controlling the same. The field sections were rendered active or inactive under the control of the car, through automatic switches operated by the car. From the foregoing, it will be seen that the field magnets and the electric devices on the car were in separate and entirely distinct electric circuits; and that the current supplied to the car armature from the storage battery thereon varied according to the load.

Referring now to my present improvements, one of the most radical features of the invention is the use of a common supplv circuit, both for the field magnets, extending along the line of travel, and for the nonrotating armature and the pole changer on the car, which supply circuit receives current from a D. C. series wound dynamo or several sets of such dynamos coupled in series, and delivers a predetermined substantially constant and relatively low current (preferably about 75 amperes), and which 100 dynamo or dynamos are automatically regulated to vary the voltage according to the speed or load. The said dynamos, field magnets, car armature and pole changer are all connected up into this common supply cir- 105 cuit in series. With this constant and low current, it is easy to construct a system in such a way as to avoid burn-outs; and another and far greater advantage is that, by the proper winding of the armature, a higher efiiciency can be secured from any given amount of energy supplied from the generator or generators because there is far less loss in transmission, and because a higher speed is rendered available due to the fact that the voltage at the generator or generators will increase in proper proportion to compensate for the C. E. M. F.

Another radical feature of my invention is the peculiar form of windings which I employ on the car armature, for utilizing the said form of supply current to the greatest advantage in my system. Otherwise stated, I employ armature windings which are variable, at the will of the operator, to increase or decrease the number of ampere turns on the armature. To this end, the armature magnets are wound with cables each composed of a plurality of wires, to-wit, four in the instance illustrated, and this is also the form of the conductors connecting the magnets with the commutator of the pole changer, and in these connections, is located a multiplex switch or controller adapted to be set so as to connect the said four wires of each cable in multiple, in multiple series, or in series, as desired. hen connected in multiple, the four wires of each cable then become exactly like a single conductor of four times the cross section of one wire; when connected in series, they become like a single conductor of four times the length and four times the number of wire turns on the armature, thereby affording sixteen times as much resistance as when coupled in multiple; and when coupled in multiple series, the difference between the two extremes is divided. It follows, that the control of the car, in order to furnish power to meet the load or afford the desired speed, is furnished by the armature windings and the multiplex switch, without the use of any dead resistance. When the armature windings are connected in multiple, the least resistance will be presented, and also the lowest number of ampere turns, and, hence, the smallest amount of power from the dynamo will be consumed; and when the windings are connected up in series, the maximum resistance will be presented and the highest number of ampere turns, and, hence, the greatest amount of power from the dynamo will be consumed. This variable armature winding, therefore, utilizes the constant current to the greatest possible advantage.

The car track is divided into blocks of a suitable length (say one mile, more or less), with the rails insulated from each other at the ends of the blocks. A third or conducting rail, made up of insulated sections, extends along the entire line of travel and mosses is suitably supported from the ties in such a Way as to be insulated from the ground. The field magnets are disposed in much the same way as before. The supply circuit from the generator or generators is a metallic circuit including automatic rheostats, located at the ends of each track block, the movable contacts of which are automatically operated by a magnetic device under the control of the car. As shown, a solenoid in a shunt from the main supply circuit is used for the purpose.

The car carries brushes which are normally in contact with the sectional third rail. The field magnets are so wound and connected into the supply circuit that there will be six magnets under the car, at any given instant of time, fully energized, and two sets of six more half energized, one set in advance and the other in the rear of the fully energized set. The field magnets are normally out of the supply circuit, but are connected therein by the car and the sectional third rail. The solenoid of each rheostat is connected with one of the track rails and the feed conductor of the supply circuit. Normally, the core of the solenoid is in its lowest position, and holding a bridging contact in position to connect into the supply circuit the lowest resistance of the rheostat. lVhen the car comes onto the block controlled by that rheostat, the car connects the field magnets into the supply circuit, by completing a new or second path for the current, to-wit, from the supply conductor of the main circuit through the field magnets to the third rail, and, thence, through the car brushes and truck to one of the track rails and over the solenoid shunt circuit, at the block tower, and around the rheostat resistance, in the main circuit, to the main supply conductor on the opposite side of the rheostat; and the instant that this occurs, a little of the current will pass through the solenoid magnet, thereby energizing the same and raising the core and the movable or bridging contact to its highest position, and this will bring into the main circuit a resistance, at the rheostat, much greater than that afforded by the connected in members of the field magnets and the car armature and its pole changer; and, hence, thereafter the current from the supply circuit will be shunted through the field and the said electric devices on the car; and this will continue until the car reaches the end of the block. The same actions will be repeated when the car is on the next block.

It will be seen, therefore, that one of the radical features of improvement, in respect to the track and the field, is the division of the track into blocks with the automatic rheostats in the towers, at the heads of the blocks, for connecting in the proper sections of the field under the cooperation of the car. 

